Ask the Patriarch 148
You still refer to 666 on your main page

from: Rev. Chris N. Fox

To open a discussion on this article, please use the contact page to provide your comments.

On your main page you say[1] that the number 666 will annoy some people. They will be misplacing their emotions. The number of the beast is actually 616 (according to the earliest sources).

666 is, I believe, his fax number.

All jesting aside, apart from the fax thing, this is true. I love misplaced faith. For some reason it pleases me.

The Patriarch replies:

Chris:

You are quite right about the current thinking on the correct wording of Revelation 13:18 as discussed earlier in Meditation 362 - And 666 becomes just another number. Yet this change has not entered popular consciousness. 666 is still regarded as an "evil" number, and this is unlikely to change, any more than Christians will change the date of Christmas from 25 December, in spite of all the evidence which shows that Jesus's birth (presuming there was such a person) was either in the spring or fall.

So, 666 will remain on the main page as the number likely to annoy some people and unfortunately to confuse some others.

For those who wonder how many pages the site actually has, there are currently approximately 1,800. And before this article was posted, exactly 13 of those pages made at least one reference to 666, which coincidently ties in with the last sentence of Meditation 362.

This refers to the left sidebar annotation:

Please explore the site - there are 666 pages* of content - Discover what we are about.

*Actually, there are many more pages than 666, but that particular number is sure to annoy someone.